Vidiyal - Site Visit by Rajaram, Asha Chennai - Jan 2006

Mr. Manavalan from the Society for the Development of the depressed
(SDD) contacted Asha Chennai in October of 2005. Due to various reasons
we could not make a site visit to the project before Jan 2006.

SDD is located in Chetpet a small town some 100 Kms S-W of Chennai. I
went with my wife and daughter to Chetpet on Jan 21st. Manavalan
received us at the outskirts of the town and took us for lunch. Then he
put up my wife and daughter at his house and then took me to SDD centre
at Chetpet.

Currently the primary activity of SDD is running Non-formal Education
centers. They give tuition to children who have dropped out of school as
well as children who are well below the educational levels required for
the class. They have centres in 9 villages. Each of these centers has
one teacher. The teacher is typically a local girl who has passed 10th
or 12th standard. They do community development activities during the
day and double up as teachers in the evenings. The classes run from 5:00 pm
to 8:30 pm. Each center has on an average 35 students. The children come
from all classes from 3rd to 10th Std. The teachers teach them portions from
their own lessons. The emphasis is on basic literacy and a practical
education.

At the Chetpet center I met teachers from most of the centers and some
children from these centers as well. We went around the room and
introduced ourselves. The story of the children were similar. Some of
the children were dropouts. The reasons for dropping out were mainly
because of working as agricultural labourers and because of the lack of
relevance of the education system. The agricultural system in vogue in
this area is not based on daily wages. There is an arrangement between
the landlords and the labourers. The landlord bears all the costs and
risks and gets 9/10ths of the produce. The labourer gets only 1/10th for
their labour. Given this there is incentive to work as much area as
possible. So they take up more than they can handle and use their
children for labour during peak periods.

SDD has also been campaigning the parents to not use their children for
labour, campaigning the landlords for a bigger share for the labourers,
campaigning the schools for structuring their time to suit the
agricultural cycle etc. SDD also runs enrollment campaigns for the government
schools in these villages and encourages parents to join their children.
They also participate in the PTA meetings of these schools and guide the
parents in dealing with the government on the needs of the schools.

This project that they are running in the villages have been running for
several years now. It is funded by the Govt. of Belgium. The funding for
this will last for 1 more year. The new project they are proposing to Asha
is to deal with the child labour problem at Chetpet. There are several
children employed in tea stalls, resturants and other small businesses
in the town. These children do not get any opportunity to study. They
are often children from villages mostly sleeping over at the place of
work or in the owner's house. SDD hopes to provide a house for these
children where there would be a strong mentor for these children. The
idea is to have a small center so that there is the feeling of a family.
In addition to providing moral support, the mentor will also teach them
basic literacy, help plan their future and provide education suitable
for that.

I also inspected their accounts. They provided their last two years'
balance sheets, their necessary certifications etc.


Coming to my opinions about the project, Manavalan came across as a very
sincere person. Even their house (from my wife's feedback) is like a
free tuition center. His wife is a teacher in a government school.
Several children from the nearby slum were coming in and going out
constantly. She assists them with their studies. He draws a salary of
Rs. 6000 a month from SDD (from the Belgian funding). The coordinator
Mr. Balan draws a salary of Rs 2000 per month and the rest are all teachers drawing Rs
1500 per month. He was very forthcoming with all this information.

The one negative about SDD is that the teachers do not seem to know much
about teaching. While they claim to teach students upto 10th standard, I
do not think they would be able to help any student beyond the 5th
standard. Even there, their knowledge of methods of teaching etc. is
minimal. The organisation has not done anything to provide any such
training to these teachers. I brought this up to Manavalan. He was very open to
the feedback and was keen to do whatever it takes to improve the quality of
education. I believe Asha Chennai can work closely with them to help improve
their quality of education.